I do not breathe your politics
On Potter, Aslan, Darwin, and the Fox Sisters
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A quick-ish, largely random thoughtpile that I cannot seem to shake loose. It has been building up over an evening of festive present wrapping (and best-left-unimagined jittering about to an old tape of Glenn Miller tunes). I figure if I set it down here now, it might let me finally fall asleep.
In a nutshell: If one of these evangelical Christians urging us to go see the Narnia film was unaware of C.S. Lewis's christian roots, what would they see in such a film? I suggest they would see a witch (gasp!) and people pledging allegiance to and hero-worshipping a lion who we are given to believe has a soul. A false saviour. Not to mention references to a dangerously habit-forming stimulant called Turkish Delight. Surely that has to be evil somehow.
Conversely, if the same individual was informed that J K Rowling was a likeminded evangelical christian, might they not rush to look past the constructed world of wizards and magic to see faith-affirming allegories of heroism, sacrifice, moral leadership, compassion and destiny in the Harry Potter stories? (And no Turkish Delight, either. Though some of the confectionery is a bit suspect). Indeed, they might even celebrate the clever use of popular themes.
Vaguely relatedly, this evening I read a comment on Groklaw about the Pennsylvania 'Intelligent Design' case. The commenter's delusional pro-ID case was brought to a conclusion with the Darwin-in-deathbed-conversion canard, stated as fact.
The slightly dissonant chord struck: If Darwin's supposed latterday conversion and recanting of evolution is taken as empirical evidence against the theory itself by evangelical Christians, why do these same sorts of people not take to the various confessions of fraud and deception by spiritualist hoaxers like the Fox sisters with the same confirmatory vigour?
Darwin made no such confession. The 'witness' to his supposed conversion was not even there at the time, while several members of his family were, and they maintain it never happened. The Fox sisters made their admission in a very public manner.
It occurs to me that it comes down to this: the continued fanning of hysteria around the nonsense which is the occult is a useful recruiting tool for a certain brand of christian fundamentalism, whereas Darwinian evolution was a threat to start with. Similarly, the conclusions drawn about Narnia and Potter are ultimately related to the supposed intent of the author. Rowling is not identified as a christian writer, therefore there are to be no possible 'healthy' themes to be found in her books. Because Lewis was a christian, we are supposed to see straight through the medium to the message, while failing to see the mysogyny at all.
In short, these people have decided what we are to think, and there can be no discussion. Much like the Pennsylvanian school board, they have to be booted out, somehow.
Hmm. I'm still awake, and you're falling asleep. Can you read it again, backwards this time?
posted by Michael at 12/22/2005 05:12:00 AM |
3 Comments:
Wrin said...
An interesting view, and very very true.
I know quite a few people who were not aware of lewis's christianity until the worlds recent obsession with the film, and they enjoyed the whole series of Books. Now however they think they are christian dribble.
Just cant win these days :P
Yolise said...
Crikey - just what I thought! I could never see it myself and actually had a hard time believing he was as hard-core Christian as people have said. I've got the entire series now, but can't bring myself to read it, despite insistance that it's very good and quite subtle in it's envangelism.
Michael said...
Actually, as it goes, Lewis's take on christianity has always appealed to me a little, despite its fervour (I am a decidedly ex-christian). I think it's because he was such an unhappy, awkward person - I can relate to him a bit. This is not to say that there aren't problems with his views.
Having read that article back, I still agree with what I wrote, pretty much... though it could do with pruning back a bit. That's some bushy writing.